Another fun thing that we do here is to send Loopy on vacation with all of you in the summertime. He first went on the road in 2007 and had an awesome time. So much so, that he wanted to go again in 2008. (This was the year that many of you took your stuffed Loopy’s, in addition to the postcards.) We sent him out again this past summer to see what trouble he could stir up, and you all rose to the challenge. For example, Loopy:

- went to China:

- and the Taj Mahal:

- tried to read the signs near the Dead Sea in Israel:

- topped a wedding cake:

- took a plane ride with some friends:

- got revenge on that crab from two years ago:

- went canoeing:

- and even hung out at the office:

Now it’s your turn to vote on Loopy’s summer!  Please take a look at all of the photos in his photo gallery - there are lots more – and send us an email (support @ theloopyewe . com), telling us:

Which photo was most creative?

What was the best “farthest place” that he traveled?

Which photo made you wish you were there?

We’ll award prizes next week!

Sheri whatwouldLoopybedoingTODAYifhewerehangingoutwithyou?
He’dbestartinganewshawlifhewerewithme. 

Sometimes we have a little overlap on these things!

There are a whole lot of you participating in our Girasole KAL, which started last month and continues through October 1st. I’m glad to see so many of you already planning a second one, because you’re enjoying it so much. (See? Didn’t I tell you it was an addictive pattern?) Loopy is working on his own version of the Girasole. I’m not sure what yarn he chose, but he sits and knits all day long and it never seems to change in size.  I haven’t done any more on mine since I last showed it to you. I dragged it all the way to Colorado, but spent my time knitting socks out there instead of working on that. It’s scary how much I hop around to different projects. But back to the Girasole – it’s never too late to join us in this KAL. It’s not a project that takes months to complete, and you have until October 1st. Jump in!

We’ve been busy checking in yarn all week long. Much of it is for Loopy Central, but some of it is for our Sock Summit booth. We’re getting excited about that event, which is coming up soon!  We have some cool things planned, including some special guests in our booth – you’ll want to meet them! I hope you’re going to be there. (If not, of course we’ll be taking photos to share with you.) Of course there’s still too much to get done before we go. Story of my life.

Sheri guesswhoiscomingtoteachclassesatnextyear’sSpringFling?
Today’sblogpostshouldgiveyouahint.

Knitting Daughter and I had a fun weekend.

Three things I knit upon this weekend:
1. Challenge Socks. I know they’re supposed to be done by the end of June. (Well, at least ONE. You know me when it comes to pairs of socks.) I love the pattern (Summer Sliding) and the yarn (Numma Numma), it just takes more concentration than I usually have in the evenings when I knit.
2. So I felt that I really needed to start my second Girasole. Remember, that’s the whole reason I did the KAL – because I wanted to make another one. I’m making this one in the shawl version out of Schaefer Anne. (Black Magic colorway). Isn’t it fun how the colors are knitting up? I’m on Chart D. Part of the knitting is tucked under. I really tried to put off starting this next one, but obviously it didn’t work.
3. I also felt the need to cast on another project, because this is a new yarn that I’m trying out and I needed to get on it. So far, I love it. A little splitty, so I have to pay attention. But it’s knitting up beautifully and I will love wearing it.

Three things we did besides knitting this weekend:
1.  A little shopping.
2. A little tv watching and movies.
3. A little Brownie Batter Blizzard. (When are they going to take that extremely effective stupid Dairie Queen Brownie Batter Blizzard commercial off the air, FPS?)

Three things going on around here today:
1. Lots more KAL orders going out. It’s so fun to have so many of you joining in on this!  Remember, the discount ends at midnight tonight.
2. We have a new rug in our Sit & Knit area. This will relate to something later in the summer. For now, I just wanted to show it to you because we like it here.
3.  Lots more yarn has come in, but we haven’t had a second to unpack any of those cases all day.

Three reasons to leave a comment today:
1. Reading your comments is healthier more fun a better way to spend my time than having another Brownie Batter Blizzard. And SOMEtimes it’s more fun….
2. I like knowing that you all are out there and actually check in on the blog from time to time. It’s nice to get to know all of you “regulars”!
3. The more comments there are tomorrow morning when I come in, the longer I can sit at my computer, drinking coffee, and enjoying them. (Not that that will affect your Sneak Up orders, because the Elves will be here and they will hop right on those. But it will affect how much coffee I can get in before attacking the orders with the Elves.)

Sheri doyouhaveathingortwoorthreetosharetoday?

We have had the same forecast all week long.

Several of you have asked what I used for blocking my Girasole. I bought two sets of these at Sam’s. I like them because they interlock (which also means they come apart for storage). The colored side is knobby, but the black side is smooth.  I used all of the squares in two sets to block mine, which turned out to be 72″ in diameter (just what the pattern said it would be.) So far, we have over 250 people KALing with us on this, and people are still signing up – how fun is that? It’s not too late to join. Details here.

We went to a dinner earlier this week and had the best cookies for dessert. I decided that I needed to come home and duplicate the recipe. (This was a catered dinner at church, so no one was there that could pass on the recipe to me.) I think they go well with thunderstorms and coffee and knitting. Or hot chocolate, fires in the fireplace, and a good book. You choose.

Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies

6 cups oats
2 1/4 cups flour
2 cups butter or margarine
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups dried cranberries
2 cups white chocolate chips

Cream together butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Add baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and flour, mixing well.  Add oats 2 cups at a time and mix until blended. Fold in cranberries and white chocolate chips by hand.

Scoop into balls and bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. (Cookies will flatten, so space well.) Let cool 2-4 minutes on pan before transferring to a wire rack.

Makes 6-8 dozen, depending on size. You can also freeze half the dough for later. I make the rest of the dough into cookie-sized balls, freeze on a cookie sheet, then transfer the frozen balls to a big zip-top bag when they’re completely frozen. Add a couple of minutes to the baking time if you’re baking the balls directly from the freezer later. If you click on that cookie photo to make it bigger, I think you’ll practically be able to smell them ….

Sheri whoishavingaGirlsWeekendwithKnittingDaughterthisweekend!
Whatareyoudoing?

How many abbreviations can you use in a blog title? Thanks for all of the emails about the Girasole KAL. I’m happy that so many of you are jumping in!

How do you pronounce that? I called it “Geer – a- sole” (hard G) for a long time, but the actual pronunciation is “Jeer-a-SO-lay”.  Or “jeed-a-SO-lay” as the online “listen to the pronunciation” guide states. As Heather mentioned in the comments on Wednesday, that is Italian for Sunflower. So hopefully we’ll have a whole field of different-sized, different-colored sunflowers by the fall!

Is this pattern difficult? It does look like it might be, doesn’t it? Anything that beautiful when it’s done, surely must be intricate to knit up. The good news is that it is not hard. When I said that I thought of it as a perfect first lace project (or first chart-reading project), I meant it.  There aren’t very many different symbols per line on the charts. That’s always easy to handle. Did you see Wendy’s blog post on chart reading this week? The first chart she shows reminds me of most of the Girasole charts. The second one she shows is much more complicated than the ones you’ll be doing on this KAL. And did I already mention that pretty much every other row is a plain ‘ol Knit row? Yep, a pretty easy knit. But we’re the only ones who have to know that. When you get yours done and are showing it around to people, you can totally let them believe that it was extremely difficult to produce.

What length of circular needles will I need? I see on the Girasole Rav board that some people have used a 60″ needle for the worsted weight. There is a point on one chart where you go from 320 stitches to 640 stitches, and I knit it onto a 60″ cable for that, expecting to need the extra space. The cable was waaaay too long for my knitting. I switched it back and I think I did the whole thing on a 40″ or 47″ cable. (Now I can’t remember.) I DO like all of my stitches bunched up because I find it easier to scoot them along to knit. It was definitely FULL on that size cable, knitting with size 9 needles. If you like things more spread out, then maybe you’ll need the longer cable. If you’re doing a lace or fingering weight version, the 40″ length (with size 6-7 needles in that weight) should be fine.

I’d like to do it, but I have too many other things on the needles at the moment. Ok, so that wasn’t a question. But I do want to point out that you don’t need to finish this until Oct. 1st, so there is plenty of time to join in later, if you want to.

I’m bad at starting and stopping projects. I’m not sure I’d stick with a project this big. Again, not a question, but I want to say that it is well documented that I’m the Queen of the Second Sock Syndrome. I probably have close to 40 single socks, with no matching partner. I also may be the Queen of UFO’s, because I’m constantly starting new things. (Of course I blame all of this on needing to try many different new/potential yarn lines here at The Loopy Ewe. I wonder what I’ll blame it on when I retire one day?) If I can stick with this pattern to the end AND want to cast on another one right away, doesn’t that say something? It really is fun to watch it unfold from your needles.

Does this have to be done in a solid/semi-solid? Not at all. In fact, the photo of Claire’s first Girasole is what made me decide to finally jump in and give this pattern a try, and she made it out of Araucania Aysen, a multi-colorway. It’s gorgeous.

I’d like to make a blanket-sized one that I can also toss in the washer. What yarn should I use? Dream in Color Classy is a worsted superwash that would be wonderful knit up in this pattern. (DC Smooshy and Starry would be beautiful for shawl-sized versions. We have a bunch more Smooshy going up early next week.) Keep in mind that you do need to block this pattern after you wash it, so a lot of people have knit it up in regular (non-superwash) worsted weight yarn – like Cascade 220 and Malabrigo. But for those who still want to throw it in the washer, even though they know they’ll have to lay it flat to dry, the DC Classy is an excellent choice.

Remember the offer – you can pick any yarn here at The Loopy Ewe that you want to use for this Girasole KAL, and we’ll give you that yarn for 20% off. (One discount per person, offer expires 6/15, and you must notate in the order notes that you are participating in the KAL and tell us which yarn in the order you will be using for your Girasole.)

I’m hoping to get my first one finished up over the weekend. Photos as soon as I can get it washed and blocked. I think that may end up being more difficult than the actual knitting…

Sheri whothinkssheepcanbekindofamottleybunch
buttheydoaddinteresttoanotherwisephoto-lessblogpost

You know that I have been spending most of my knitting time on making a blanket-sized Girasole.

I decided that I’d like company in this project, and am turning it into an official Loopy Knit-A-Long. Come join me! You can start now. Or if you’re in the middle of one already, join in with that one. Let’s say (for Knit-A-Long purposes) that it needs to be finished and photo-ed and up in the Loopy Photo Gallery by Oct. 1st. I predict many of you will be done in 3 weeks, because it’s addictive.  But we’ll say Oct. 1st, officially. And that’s not all. We’re going to offer you a 20% discount on the yarn to KAL with us! The discount is good on whatever yarn you want to pick out to use for your Girasole project. It’s only good on one colorway/one yarn type, so make sure that you decide on the weight/color you want to use, before you put an order in. Since Web Guy is still out of the country and can’t doodle up an automatic code thing-y for us, we will have to manually deduct the 20% discount, after you have put your order in. (We don’t collect any funds from you until your order is packed up and is shipping out, so we’ll only collect the correct, discounted amount. When you get your “shipped” email, you can log into your Loopy account and click on that order to see what the final total ended up being.) Important note: if you want free shipping on this order, be sure to mentally figure your subtotal after discount to be sure that the discount doesn’t take you under the $75 threshold when we adjust the price. If the adjusted discount drops you below that $75 amount, we’ll add the regular $5.95 shipping charge back in. (And did anyone want to ask me how I feel about the post office continuing to raise postal prices? Because I’m happy to go on and on about it….)

To take advantage of this offer, you must add an order note to your order, telling us that 1) you are joining the KAL and 2) which yarn you are planning to use for it, so we know which one to apply the discount to. Like this:

“I’ll KAL with you! I’m making my Girasole out of the 9 skeins of Cascade 220 in blue that I just bought.”

or

“I’ll KAL with you! I’m making my Girasole out of the skein of Perchance to Knit Lace in Berry Sorbet that I just bought.”

The “20% off your Girasole KAL yarn” offer is good from now until June 15th. One discount per person. Good on in-stock yarns only. (No special orders for this.) We’re keeping a list of everyone who signs up and will look forward to seeing all of the finished photos. I hope that a lot of you join me in this KAL. We’ll start two threads on the Ravelry Loopy Groupie board – one for those making a lace/fingering/dk shawl-sized version and one for those making it in the worsted blanket-sized version. (And if you already have something in your stash that will make the perfect Girasole, just hop in and join us, too.) Yardage-wise, the pattern mentions using 1150 – 1800 yds, depending on the weight. I think I will end up using 8 skeins of Cascade Eco-Alpaca for mine, with a size 9 needle. That’s 1760 yds, so that falls right where it’s supposed to be for the worsted version.

You can buy the Girasole pattern here on Ravelry, or here on Jared Flood’s blog.

Sheri sowho’supforKALingwithme?

It’s time to start up another one and this one will be fun, too. I like making the KAL about a certain yarn, and then letting everyone be creative with what they do with that yarn. For our first KAL, you could pick any sweater you wanted to make with Dream in Color Classy. For this KAL, you can pick any pattern you want to make with Dream in Color Baby! I wanted to pick a yarn that would be lighter to knit up for the summer months, and Baby is perfect. No, we won’t always be knitting with Dream in Color yarns for our KAL’s (I have the next KAL already figured out and it’s not DC), but I know many of you fell in love with other colorways during the first KAL and this will give you a chance to experiment with another one of their amazing colors. (Click on that photo to make it larger and see some of them up close!) The other thing I like about Baby is that it can be knit up as a laceweight, or a fine fingering weight. You can do shawls or scarves, cowls or mitts, hats or socks, as long as you pay attention to your gauge and needle size. I had some people doing a challenge a few months back where they were buying 2 colors of Baby because they had to knit socks by using two different colored laceweight yarns together, knit as one. What a fun exercise that would be! I had a great time pairing up colorways. (And gorgeous results, no doubt, with two DC colors intermixing.) For those of you participating in Summer of Socks, this might be a good option, as I’m sure you’d like to be knitting socks during this time. This is also a good chance to get a jump on holiday knitting by picking something that you can do for a gift. (I can’t believe I said that. I never start holiday knitting this early, even though I swear I’m going to.) I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the KAL. I have already picked my colorway and pattern (In Vino Veritas and Gust – although I think I will make Gust wider than the pattern calls for.) We’re going to again offer you a 20% discount on Dream in Color Baby for this KAL, from now until the end of this month. All you have to do to get the discount is to leave us an order note telling us that you’re participating in the KAL and telling us what pattern you’re going to knit up. We’ll take the 20% off of your DC Baby when we process your order. (Note – if we run out of the colorway you need in Baby, just let us know by June 30th which color you need and how many skeins, and we’ll get it ordered for you at the discount price.) This KAL will go from now until October 1st.

I have knitting to show you. Remember when I mentioned that I had started a Feather and Fan scarf (free pattern here on Wendy’s blog) at the Spring Fling? Well, they’re addictive. I must say, they do take a rather long time to knit, because it’s 58 stitches across and it’s fingering weight yarn, but the results are so fun and the pattern is easy-peasy. The scarf I started at the Fling (and just finished, because I had to complete my KAL sweater in the middle of it all) is out of Am Kalten Polar from Wollmeise. I had done a few inches of it at the Fling and then set it down on the table to wander around and talk to people. I looked over a few minutes later and Claudia (the Wollmeise herself) had picked it up and was knitting on it! So that makes this scarf special. While I was in the middle of that one, I started another one that I wanted to do as a gift for someone. (Because I’m fickle like that – always starting something new.) This time I used Noro, because I could just envision how pretty the Noro colors would look in this pattern. I like it so much that I’ve already wound another skein of Noro into a cake to make another. (Um, and I’ve already wound another skein of Wollmeise into a cake to make another out of that, too. I told you these were addictive.) Both scarves were knit out of 1 skein of yarn, on size 4 needles. Of course I’m starting my KAL first, because I am bound and determined to finish this one before 11:45 pm, the day it is due. Ahem.

In other news, we sold our first spinning wheel! Tracey had been eyeing the very wheel that had already arrived here (I was going to use it as a shop wheel, but so far it had remained untouched) and she said she’d buy it if Loopy put his paws hooves on it before it shipped. Loopy was happy to do that, and now the wheel is on its way to a new home. We’re really excited about offering wheels here and we’ll keep you posted when they start arriving and go up on the website, later this summer (including news on what lines we’ll have and which models.) Two questions that people keep asking can be answered now – “Will it count towards Frequent Shopper Benefits?” and “Will it include free shipping” can both be answered with a YES! (Not yet a spinner? Ohhhh, just wait. We’ll keep enticing you to join us……)

Sheri awholenewclanofLittleLoopysarrivedyesterday.They’regoingstircrazyhereattheshop.

- a 20% discount on your next order of DC Classy (maximum of 8 skeins, because we think that 8 will make about any sweater!). If you’re like me, you have seen everything that everyone else made and now you have a whole other list of sweaters and DC Colorways that you want to try. So take the yarn for your next one at a special price from us.
- We’ll make it even easier. If you have a particular colorway you want to get, just email me (sheriATtheloopyeweDOTcom) and we’ll reserve it for you. Be sure to let me know how many skeins you’ll need. We’ll email you when it comes in and we’re ready to ship it out to you. (If your photo is now in the KAL photo gallery, you made the deadline and are eligible for these two rewards. If you don’t email us ahead with your colorway/skeins, just leave us an order note on your next DC Classy order and we’ll take the 20% off of that for you. We have a list of those of you who made the deadline. Another complete Classy re-stock coming soon!)

I’m so happy to have finished my sweater, too. (I won’t tell you how much knitting went on this past weekend, but suffice it to say that it was hot off the needles JUST in time for the deadline.) You might remember that the whole reason I started this KAL was so that I’d be forced pressured held accountable encouraged to knit myself a sweater with this DC Classy that I just love. I’m glad it worked. Thanks to all of you who emailed or left me messages on Ravelry to keep me moving forward! And now it’s good to have it done because it’s too hot here to have a cat AND a sweater on your lap while you knit. (The cat is non-negotiable. I can’t sit and knit without Zoe hopping right up and settling in, FPS. Gracie knows that that is Zoe’s spot and leaves her to it. Luckily. Gracie is twice the size and has long hair. That’s an even hotter bundle of cat for a lap!) I used the Cloud Jungle colorway and made the body and the sleeves longer. (It’s the Mr. Greenjeans pattern, found here.)  I also added four buttons instead of just one. After seeing all of the photos, I have picked out a few new sweaters that I want to knit next (in the fall, when I’m ready to have a sweater on my lap again):

This one, and this one, and this one and this one and this one. Just to start with. Because I actually didn’t see one sweater photo in the gallery that I didn’t like. (I have my work cut out for me. Good thing we have monthly orders in with Dream in Color….)

I have another KAL cooked up for us and will tell you all about that shortly. I wanted to give the rest of you two or three more weeks to finish your sweaters before starting up a new one. This next one is going to be fun, too, so stay tuned. I’ll tell you about it at the end of the month.

Remember in my Three Things post on Friday I told you that we were going to hit the restaurant Granite City over the weekend? Here is the main reason to head there for their Sunday Brunch. Every table gets these massive cinnamon rolls that have the best caramel sauce poured over the top. Yum. The other thing I liked was the decor – all Mission Oak-ish, which is totally me. (Valerie – Mission Oak! Come visit and we’ll go there!) Now we’ll have to go back for a regular meal there, as I hear the Asian Chicken Salad is wonderful.

Thanks for all of your entries in last week’s contest! We did a Monday Morning Sneak Up this week just for you early birds. (I know it wasn’t quite as early as some of you would have liked, but since we don’t work on Sundays, we had a couple of things to finish up Monday morning before we could post it.) Congratulations to our randomly-selected contest winner: Petunia from Delaware. She has received a $30 Loopy Gift Certificate!

I’m heading out to the TNNA Market this weekend and looking forward to that. These twice-a-year markets are important for staying in tune with what’s going on in the industry, and making sure that we spot fun new things to have at The Loopy Ewe. I’ll fill you in when I get back! I’ll be out of email/blog range from Friday through Monday, but will be back at Loopy Central on Tuesday morning to catch up. (Of course the Elves will be here shipping out all of your orders during this time. No interruption to that!) Be sure to catch the blog this Friday, though. We’ll have a special one for you.

Sheri somanyboxesarrivedthisweekthatitmakesmewonderwhyI’mgoingtoMarkettofindmorestuff….